


See You Tomorrow

by memefair



Series: Canon Divergent: Nanamicentric [4]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Human Nanami Chiaki, ok im done for today
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 02:52:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14322975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/memefair/pseuds/memefair
Summary: Where in the world is Hinata Hajime?





	See You Tomorrow

The Reserve Course students remained frosty no matter how she tried to bribe them to speak. They were uneasy in a way that told her they were hiding something, but she was unable to intimidate them or butter them up in any way that made them want to give her the truth. It was incredibly frustrating to come back day after day trying to find a single lead.

Detectives in games always made it look so easy.

She just wanted a straight answer to one question: _“Do you know what happened to Hinata Hajime?”_

Their answers continued to beat around the bush.

“I don’t know, I think maybe he went home?”

“I haven’t seen him for a while.”

“Who?”

“Now that you mention it, he hasn’t been to class for a while.”

“The teacher hasn’t said anything to us.”

All of this was spoken with discomfort in their voices, eyes refusing to meet hers, excuses made to leave before she could question them further. Many of them were outright hostile to her, thanks to her status as a student in the Main Course.

Instinct told her something was off. She didn’t want to just give up, and so she kept coming back, until his former classmates knew her by name and scattered whenever they saw her. It was on one of these days that she finally got somebody to tell her where his locker was. From then on, she kept an eye on it, trying to devise a plan for getting it open.

(Invasion of privacy? If nothing bad happened to him, it would empty anyway because he really did pack up and go home, she kept telling herself.)

Some time after winter break, though, she found that somebody had beaten her to it. When she turned the corner in the hallway, there were two adult men cutting the lock on the door. The locker swung open, and they began removing everything that was inside, placing it all delicately in a white plastic trash bag. Books, mainly. It was what she’d expect.

“Wait.”

Chiaki didn’t realize she’d spoken. She’d been standing there mutely in the hall, mouth dry, heart hammering in her chest as she observed them.

“What are you… what’s going on?” Her voice shook. One of them turned to regard her coolly, as if he took note of the devastation on her face but simply didn’t care. “Where’s Hinata-kun?”

The other was a bit more sympathetic.

“The incident with the two girls in his class frightened him. He left for home in such a hurry he left his books behind.” It was an explanation that matched what she’d been told before.

 _No,_ she wanted to say. _That’s wrong. Because I looked up his home number on the student directory and called his parents four times, and each time they said he was out… and then they stopped answering. I think… they blocked my number. Something’s wrong. Something’s definitely wrong!_

But the man who had not yet spoken gave her such a cold look that the words froze in her mouth.

She found herself stuttering out, “I-I see,” instead of her previous objections. Then she turned around and walked woodenly back to where she’d started. When she was out of their line of sight, she broke into a run, feet thudding against the pavement on her way back to her dorm where she could be safe.

_Hope’s Peak meant so much to him. He wouldn’t give up on this school so easily!_

_Besides, if he just “went home”, why didn’t he give them the combination…? Why did they have to cut the lock?_

They were lying to her, but why? And why did she feel like, if she kept digging her heels in like this, she might be the one to disappear next?

A week passed. It wasn’t much, but she kept herself occupied with schoolwork and her classmates, trying to keep her mind off of the chill in the air she felt when she thought too hard about what had happened. A trip to a local pawn shop was in order, just to see if they had any old games or merchandise she might be interested in. It was, like most everything else, a useful distraction.

“You might be looking for something like this,” said the man at the counter. “Just got it in a few days ago. It’s in pretty good condition, considering its age.”

The woman talking to him seemed unimpressed. “You couldn’t get the sticker off it, though?”

Chiaki glanced up from where she’d been browsing the glass case containing the store’s retro games.

“It was stubborn, and a bunch of glue left stuck to the plastic is a lot uglier than this little guy,” the man replied with a shrug. “Your kid will probably think it’s cute.”

He was brandishing a blue Nintendo Gameboy in one hand, waving it around like it was a dime a dozen. Chiaki’s breath caught in her throat.

Without thinking, she rushed over to the woman’s side, moving so fast the adults were both taken aback by how quickly she had appeared. She slapped her hands down on the counter.

“L-let me buy that!” she demanded.

_“Hey, Hinata-kun, you did really good that time!” Without waiting for a reply, she’d unceremoniously placed a puffy Kirby sticker on the case of his Gameboy as a reward._

_He frowned at her as if he was about to complain, but relented at the last second. Chiaki gave him a grin._

_“I bet you can do even better next time,” she said. “See? We make a great team.”_

“Where in the world–” the woman stuttered out, whipping around to face the short girl, confusion clear on her face. Then she shook her head, scowling at Chiaki where the teenager stood, shoulders tense. “It doesn’t matter. I’m in the process of purchasing this, you can’t just interrupt!” she scolded.

Chiaki’s face fell. The merchant looked pleased. But she wasn’t going to take no for an answer, so she slung her bag off her back, dropping it on the floor at her feet. She began rooting around in it, and after a few moments she pulled out her own pink Gameboy, showing it to the woman.

“I’ll give you this for free,” she promised. “Just let me have this one.”

Later, as she walked away from the store, she clutched the newly purchased device to her chest. It was exactly as she remembered it.

When she’d questioned the pawn shop owner, she’d been told it had come in with several other items. The seller hadn’t given him a name.

“I’ll keep this safe for you,” Chiaki murmured. She reached up to wipe her wet face, eyes downcast, not wanting any random passerby on the street to see her cry.

**Author's Note:**

> just a simple lil oneshot from... wow, 9 months ago apparently? bc i refuse to believe she didn't investigate and just sat there waiting for him like a lump the entire time


End file.
